00:00:27 My name is Pat Ryan.

00:00:29 My job with Dow is to put together a radio program, the Around Dow Show.

00:00:34 I travel all around Dow talking to people about their interests, their hobbies, their

00:00:38 jobs and many things.

00:00:40 My job today is to take you around Dow, at least a part of it, by following Don Curtis,

00:00:46 whom you just saw enter the personnel office here.

00:00:50 We're going to show you just what happens to a newly hired Dow employee by following

00:00:56 the employee orientation checklist.

00:00:59 And we hope to show you some opportunities often overlooked of ways of strengthening

00:01:04 the communications channel between supervision and the employee.

00:01:09 Now let's follow Don inside and see how he's doing.

00:01:14 We're inside and Don has brought his application to Joan Dillon in the hourly personnel department.

00:01:22 After a review of the information on Don's application to decide in the acceptability

00:01:27 of his qualifications, Joan directs Don to a seat and puts his name on a waiting list

00:01:32 until he can be interviewed by a personnel staff member.

00:01:40 At this point, Don has been interviewed.

00:01:43 He's been considered for employment and offered a job.

00:01:47 His psychological and physical examinations have been completed.

00:01:51 And now as a new employee, Don is talking with Don Wilkinson, a personnel staff member,

00:01:57 who is explaining the employee orientation checklist to him.

00:02:01 Now Don, I want to explain to you the rate of pay you'll receive for the job you're going on.

00:02:09 Starting tomorrow morning, you'll receive $2.62 an hour.

00:02:14 In 30 days, you'll get a raise to $2.97, 15 days to $3.01, and then another 15 days to $3.05.

00:02:22 How long a period does this cover before I get a top rate?

00:02:26 This will cover 60 days.

00:02:28 Now your paycheck will be on, or paydays will be on Thursdays.

00:02:33 You'll receive your first paycheck a week from Thursday.

00:02:37 Now tomorrow, Don, you will be meeting with the plant protection and the safety department

00:02:43 in meetings.

00:02:44 Now, at this time, though, we have a member from the plant protection department that

00:02:48 would like to say a few words.

00:02:50 Mr. Paul Mahoney is coming over.

00:02:52 Well, Don, one of the functions of plant protection is in the area of identification.

00:03:01 During World War II, the fingerprinting, photographing, and processing of employees was carried on

00:03:06 throughout the industrial plants.

00:03:10 Companies and many companies have reduced their requirements, but here at Dow, we have not

00:03:18 We carry on much the same as we did during the war, and the reason for this is that it

00:03:24 ensures you...

00:03:27 Paul continues now to explain to Don some points about plant protection, including the

00:03:34 telephone alerting system, the medical and ambulance, and how to call the fire department,

00:03:40 and many other things.

00:03:42 Don now continues his orientation checklist as he talks to a safety engineer from the

00:03:48 Dow safety department.

00:03:50 Don, we'd like to talk about one more major topic this afternoon, and that's safety policy.

00:03:58 In our Midland plant, we have a safety policy endorsed by the general manager, Mr. Bosher.

00:04:04 Quote, safety is the first consideration and a basic responsibility of every Midland division employee.

00:04:12 We'd like to have you have a feel for our concept of why we have accidents.

00:04:19 If you think of closing the plant gates tonight with a safe shutdown, taking all employees

00:04:27 out, chances are you won't be reading about any accidents occurring in the Dow Chemical Company.

00:04:33 It seems like we have to have people and equipment in order to have accidents, so we open the

00:04:39 gates again tomorrow morning, put our people back in our plant, start up our equipment

00:04:43 in our building, we start having accidents again.

00:04:47 So this, in a sense, tells us that accidents are caused and they just don't happen.

00:04:52 Now accidents are caused in an analogy of our records, about 90% personal accident for

00:04:59 the employee and about 10% condition.

00:05:01 But if you look into the conditions, you can also find that some employee had something

00:05:06 to do with precipitating the accident where the condition was major in the accident caused.

00:05:12 It's been a pleasure having you with us, Don, and covering all of our safety items, but

00:05:21 before we part today, we'd like to leave you with a safety instruction book of this sort,

00:05:27 and I'm sure that you can review that and learn many things that we talked about.

00:05:31 If you have any difficulties in the plant, your safety engineer is as near as your phone.

00:05:35 It's been a pleasure.

00:05:39 I'd like to pass this along to our supervisor.

00:05:44 Now, this part of the orientation safety checklist given by Brett Harmon, safety engineer,

00:05:53 includes the personnel department's portion of the employee orientation checklist.

00:05:59 Now, we're going to go out into the production department and meet Dick Deline, the plant supervisor.

00:06:07 It's at this point in the production plant where Don Curtis, as a new employee, meets

00:06:14 his supervision for the first time.

00:06:17 Here he begins to form opinions of the people he'll be working for, and it's also here

00:06:22 where we get down to the real specifics of the hazards of particular chemicals Don will

00:06:27 be working with.

00:06:29 So let's meet Dick Deline, plant supervisor, now as he completes phase four of the employee

00:06:36 orientation checklist.

00:06:38 Don, you live on Dock Road.

00:06:40 Is that east, west, north, or south of Midland?

00:06:43 No, that's west of Midland, out near Gordonville, just east of M-30.

00:06:47 Oh, I see.

00:06:48 Is that out near Homer Road?

00:06:50 Yes, Dock Road is a two-mile road.

00:06:53 It runs from Homer Road to M-30.

00:06:56 Uh-huh.

00:06:57 One of our maintenance foremen in the fluorocetic acid plant lives on Homer Road, Fred Lloyd.

00:07:02 You know Fred?

00:07:03 Oh, I know him well.

00:07:04 We used to go out and do some pheasant hunting on Fred's farm.

00:07:08 Do you have any pheasants out your way?

00:07:10 No, sorry to say, I haven't.

00:07:12 I see that you're married, Don.

00:07:14 Yes.

00:07:15 How many children?

00:07:16 Four.

00:07:17 Four children.

00:07:18 Three boys and a girl.

00:07:20 And I see this is your first day at Dow.

00:07:22 What's been your previous work?

00:07:24 Well, I done mason work, cement work for a while.

00:07:28 I was a baker for another short while.

00:07:33 Jack of all trades, I guess.

00:07:35 Sounds good.

00:07:38 As you can see, Dick is taking a little time in advance

00:07:43 before going into the actual orientation checklist

00:07:47 to put Don at ease, give him a chance to relax a little bit

00:07:51 and get both fellas a chance to know each other a little bit.

00:07:55 And there's no particular time as far as this is concerned.

00:07:58 Sometimes it might take five minutes or ten minutes or even an hour.

00:08:03 Let's go back now and continue the conversation

00:08:06 between Don and Dick.

00:08:10 Don, the department also has to complete this employee orientation checklist.

00:08:16 One of the things I'd like to cover with you today

00:08:19 is the products that you're going to be handling and manufacturing.

00:08:22 This is the crude chloroacetic acid that is manufactured in this building.

00:08:28 And as it goes through this flaker packager job

00:08:31 we hope that it will come out as a finished product like this.

00:08:36 But what do you have, a process that this goes through to

00:08:40 when it comes out it's solid like this?

00:08:42 That's right.

00:08:43 This material has a freezing point of about 62 degrees centigrade

00:08:46 or about 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:08:49 So this means that many of the lines have to be steam traced and covered.

00:08:55 Now, this material is a strong acid.

00:08:59 It's corrosive not only to skin but to the equipment.

00:09:03 It can be handled properly.

00:09:05 One of the requirements in our building is to wear safety glasses and side shields.

00:09:10 This will be required in the operation part of this building at all times

00:09:14 and tank farm.

00:09:15 The only place that you will not be required to wear side shields

00:09:19 are in the offices, labs, and control room.

00:09:23 The sight shields are to eliminate the splashes from coming in from the side.

00:09:28 That's right.

00:09:29 In fact, there are other hazards in our plant that will require

00:09:32 something more than safety glasses and side shields.

00:09:35 In other words, a full face shield.

00:09:38 Let me tell you a little bit more about the operations in our plant.

00:09:41 We employ 35 to 40 people.

00:09:44 There are five operators on each shift.

00:09:47 There's a head operator on each shift.

00:09:49 So you will have some help from this particular gentleman.

00:09:52 Most of our six major products go into weed killers.

00:09:57 It's a 24D and a 245T.

00:10:01 We do have plenty of competition.

00:10:03 In fact, some of our competition comes from France.

00:10:06 This material sells for about 15 or 20 cents a pound.

00:10:09 So you can see that in your packaging job,

00:10:11 if you waste a few pounds a day,

00:10:13 you're going to have some dollars going down the sewer.

00:10:17 These five or six other fellows that you were talking about,

00:10:21 they're all experienced operators?

00:10:23 Not necessarily.

00:10:25 Most of them, of course, have more experience than you have

00:10:27 since this is your first day in the plant.

00:10:29 But it's true that some of them only have six months to a year.

00:10:34 I don't know whether you've been told about our

00:10:36 pilot Midland Division safety policy or not,

00:10:39 but Harold Bosher, our general manager,

00:10:41 has come up with a policy that pretty well everybody follows

00:10:45 from the general manager right on down to the job,

00:10:47 including you and myself.

00:10:49 It's something like this.

00:10:51 Safety must be a first consideration

00:10:53 and a basic responsibility of every Midland Division employee.

00:10:56 They had a group safety meeting

00:10:59 that we had out at the front end

00:11:01 before I came on here.

00:11:03 That probably covered some of the same things

00:11:06 that they have.

00:11:08 Good.

00:11:09 Why don't you get into your job a little bit first?

00:11:11 Interrupt me at any time, Don,

00:11:13 if you have some questions.

00:11:15 But we have some specific operational instructions

00:11:17 written for your job.

00:11:19 And these are something like this.

00:11:22 This doesn't give you all the answers,

00:11:24 but let me tell you some of the topics that are covered.

00:11:26 Safety equipment and practices.

00:11:28 Housekeeping.

00:11:30 This is an important part of your job.

00:11:32 Record keeping.

00:11:34 Process information.

00:11:36 You'll find there's other information

00:11:38 such as filling drums, loading drums,

00:11:40 operating reactors.

00:11:42 And probably the most significant page of all

00:11:45 is this last one.

00:11:47 This indicates the normal operating conditions

00:11:49 You should be running your equipment in.

00:11:51 It covers the hazards of deviating

00:11:53 from these normal conditions.

00:11:55 And the emergency shutdown.

00:11:59 So Don, there's going to be many things

00:12:01 that we're going to have to cover

00:12:03 in the next two or three days.

00:12:05 And part of this will be done with a forum.

00:12:07 But today,

00:12:09 if I can just tell you

00:12:11 about our emergency plans

00:12:13 and then...

00:12:15 Sure, go ahead.

00:12:18 This job that I'm going on,

00:12:20 will I be on with an experienced man

00:12:22 to start out with,

00:12:24 or will I be on by myself?

00:12:26 You'll be trained by an experienced man

00:12:28 along with supervision

00:12:30 along with the head operator.

00:12:32 The head operator is experienced in all phases.

00:12:34 But you're going to have to be on your own

00:12:36 pretty well over the next two or three weeks.

00:12:38 That was the question.

00:12:42 So now the employee orientation checklist

00:12:44 has been completed.

00:12:47 And Don Curtis head toward a new job.

00:12:49 And the opportunity

00:12:51 for a free-flowing communication channel

00:12:53 has been opened up

00:12:55 between supervision and the employee.

00:12:57 And it's here

00:12:59 that an open-door policy

00:13:01 can be created

00:13:03 to keep small problems from mushrooming.